


Sunshine

by StarryNighty



Category: Den of Thieves (2018)
Genre: Black Reader, Black female reader - Freeform, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2020-11-22 22:14:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20881526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryNighty/pseuds/StarryNighty
Summary: You and Ray reunite.





	1. Part 1

**H**e paid his debt to society. Ten years of solid prison time had left an impression. But it hardly suppressed his illicit nature. Ray bit off a large bite of the convenience store burrito, it was as tasteless as the shit he had in max and went down just as hard. But it was good to be back in the world. Once again back in the neighborhood, he knew so well. And finally, around the friends, he grew up with and served with.

Ray stared at his phone, swiped through long history there as he collected bits and pieces of information. Then suddenly, a blasting glimmer of light hit his down-turned lids. His eyes turned up toward you, there you were, the bright afternoon sun glinting off your dangly earrings. His girl, his Sunshine. The rays brought drama to the moment as it bathed you in white yellow crowning your head of tight curls in mahogany and sunflower yellow. It turned him on. He loved how you tried to fit in now. Clothes much more expensive than the general store rags you pilfered back in the day shaped to your body. It wrapped beautifully around you. His eyes, eager to take all of you in, travel down your thick body, the tight jeans fit snuggly around the roundness of your ass, and the width of your thighs as you walked toward the store.

Ray remembered what it meant to have you. Tears streaking down your face after a strained orgasm. The tight impulsive way you slid down his body when you wanted attention. He had missed the cues back then. Admittedly he had been a fucking fool to ignore the love you had for him back then. 

But he wouldn’t let that go twice. He held onto that promise as you walked into the store. His eyes dropped down to his phone again. You stood out boldly among the others. That bright smile could bring up the room easily. His eyes traced your face and then along to a few others, he guessed that was your colleagues.

Ray clicked the screen off and then tossed into the seat next to him. For a few seconds, he caught glimpses of you perusing the shelves, your habit of touching every item your eyes landed on was still there. There were still parts of you there that he remembered fondly. The arch in your brow when you finally hit on something you wanted. The light steps, almost like you glided when you walked. Something akin to an angel quality, he thought, living in the hell of Los Angeles it was a rare find.

~

“Ya, I’ll be in tomorrow.“ You said with a mildly agitated tone. "It’s my day off but you’ll owe me, Becca.” You continued pointed your finger at her and made sure that the woman across the desk with the handle of the phone pressed against her ear knew you meant business.

Grabbing up your belongings you walked out of the office, your steps were quick taking you down the elevator and through the lobby without a hitch. You stepped out into the cooler evening air. Another day, another dollar. You hardly had time to pause these days and take in what it meant to have a steady job. Though grateful it wasn’t what Ray had left you in, you were more than aware that it could have been worse.

Out of the parking lot of about twenty vehicles, you walked toward yours. The thick soft plastic of your flats thump on the asphalt you pulled your phone. Keith had messaged you.

_Hey love, I’m bringing dinner over. See you._

A deeply warm grin pulled at your lips. Like in your heart the soft threads of devotion began to become intertwined with his. He was a full-blown romantic. Keith was suave, his voice light though powerful it sank right into you. He was strong, dependable and offered the safety you only saw in the movies.

And most importantly, he allowed you to focus on what mattered—getting your life back on track. You cracked your car door open, still staring at your phone. So maybe your head-space was in the land of Keith’s devotion. Because the looming shadow to your right drew in closer than you would have ever permitted.

Distracted by the now absence of light, you turn to the towering figure and in the midst of identifying him, you caught his reflection. Did you see that right? The beard, you remembered the rough hair as it emerged from between your thighs.

Your eyes landed on him before his wide hand pushed your door closed.

The air picked up around you whipping his sweaty scent into your face. He smelled the same. “Ray?” you asked, though you knew who this was without doubt.

Ray as he slid between you and the driver’s side door of your car as he spoke. “Sunshine.” The sun washed over his face in evening gold, the dusting of pink lit his brown eyes to rust. It was like you remembered, those eyes and his ability to stare right through you.

The circumstances of why you broke it off came flooding back. His self serving loyalty that only meant you got something out of it if the opportunity aligned in his favor. Ten years had not been long enough for you to forget how he used you.

“What the fuck do you want? Come to pin another robbery on me?” you bit off as you stepped back folding your arms across your chest.

“’Come on, that didn’t happen. You got questioned.” he said.

“I lost my job. I lost my home—I lost everything.” You stopped talking. The man in front you was always the igniter, the reason for your burning rage. And this time was no different. You could feel the heat of anger licking at your words.

“Move, Ray.” you gritted.

“I wanted to see how my Sunshine was doing these days.”

“Stop calling me that. MOVE, RAY!” you yelled, the hurt in it cracked at the end. “You didn’t give fuck at all when you went to prison and left me with nothing!”

His eyes moved over your shaking form. He could see the pain there, the rot of how he left you in your face as it easily contorted into a rage. You had given him so much more than he gave you. Ray knew that now. Older, maybe wiser he wanted to make it up to you. Perhaps it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch that Ray Merrimen could be merciful in his brutality.

“Ten years Ray!” you shouted again, the sun glinted off the shiny red nail polish as you wiped away tears.

The anger in you, he caught the brunt of it when your dark eyes settled back on him again. Black as the guns he hoarded and just as deadly. You look at him and he felt the shot to his heart.

He knew you better than you knew yourself. Or at the very least, he knew what motivated you. Ray stepped forward, drew his shoulders and stance to his full height as he took the final step. But the wild and tender parts of your pain had you backing up from him. You couldn’t take another hit like that from him.

“Stop.” You squeaked out passed the weakening resolve. “You don’t _get_ to make up for shit with me!”

He felt differently when he touched your face. Ray’s long rough fingers grazed your cheek as it swept to the back of your neck. Gentle. His other hand, the fingers tilted your chin up to look at him. A mighty change from ten years ago when a younger more reckless Ray would have just pushed you aside.

Ray felt the shake in your shoulders, the hitched breath in your chest as he wrapped his arms around you. Enveloping in you in the warmth he lacked all those years ago. Silently, he promised himself to make up for it. He didn’t feel complete until you finally gave in. Your hands and arms slid under his flannel and over the white tee shirt and brought him closer in.

His hands glided back up and held your face in his warm palms. He made you look at him when he spoke. Another difference you noted. The old Ray wouldn’t have cared if you listened.

“I’m sorry. I’m just asking for another chance…” said Ray, as he raked his rough knuckles under your jaw. But the reunion didn’t last long. Resentment bit back. How dare he think you could just forget.

You elbowed your way from him, pushing and then shoved him back hard though he didn’t move an inch.

“Fuck you, Ray!” you shouted once again, tears streaming down your face you walked around Ray. You got in your car, stunned and hurt you looked at him standing there still as he watched you too.

You pushed away from the memories of before. In a time when he was yours, and maybe you belonged to him too. But that was the past. And he couldn’t make up for that now.

~

What a wonderful life you seemed to have made for yourself.

Ray strode through your living room. His eyes moved from the quality of the curtains, the furniture, the double glasses on the sleek coffee table and then finally to a photo on the wall. You were in it, a man half his size hugged you from behind. The smile on your face didn’t match the vacant expression in your eyes. Ray knew that look too.

At first, he just wanted to get a feel of you again. Maybe relearn your habits, get to know what made you tick again. But as he walked through your home he found himself at your bedroom door.

He stood there, staring into it seeing the soft way only you could decorate but not daring enough to move in closer.

And before he had a chance to rethink it he walked over to your drawer. He forced himself at first not to open it immediately. He wasn’t sure what he would find there after all. Obviously, you lived here with someone, or partially—but it was enough for Ray to keep his cool.

He opened the first drawer and plucked a dainty pair of your panties. He just wanted a look. They were purple, maybe a shade of pink he didn’t know but he absolutely knew without a doubt you had worn these. He pushed the crotch of it into his nose. Even past the detergent, fabric softener, there was a subtle scent of you. Ray stroked the hardening length stretching his boxer briefs under his loose jeans.

He remembered how your wet pussy was when you rode his face. He had never knew what real joy and freedom was outside of watching you cum on his mouth. Because then you were open and free to show him everything you hid from others. It was the fire in you that he missed.

That part of you he should have appreciated more. He unzipped his jeans tugged and released his large cock from its trap and held it as he inhaled the fragrance you left behind.

Ray stroked himself as he imaged how creamy you looked with one of his loads dripping out of you. That thought alone brought on his orgasm and splashed across the contents of your drawer. The mere thought of you coming back home, bathing, then putting a one of these was enough to make him cum again.

He wiped off his hand with the thin fabric, folded it and placed it back in your drawer.

Ray shut it back, he replaced himself within his pants as he looked around once last time.

He wouldn’t feel so manic anymore. In time you would remember too—that he loved you, still even after all this time. And he wouldn’t let you go again.

~

The man was slick, dressed in some luxury suit Keith chatted with his work pals as he sipped on his capped coffee or some shit.

Ray was ready. Squared up and pissed off that this man put his hands all over his girl.

The betrayal hit hard. He knew it had been ten years but right now, as he watched the man laugh with a curl in his lip Ray wanted nothing more than to bash his face in.

Ray knocked the cup out of his hand, the contents, hot– steamed up as it hit the ground. Keith didn’t have time to protest before Ray knocked him across the jaw, then the chin and as his head snapped back Ray popped him again, in the gut.

Keith hurled over, wretched up a thick concoction of coffee and whatever he had for breakfast as Ray kneed him in the face.

The other three suits didn’t move. They didn’t so much as speak when Ray turned to them marveling in the shock and fear spreading across their face Ray smiled back.

He turned back to Keith, stared at the man with righteous fury as Keith sank to the ground in his expensive suit.

“Next time you put your hands on her you’re going to disappear.” Ray’s voice was calm and despite the warp of paranoia currently flooding into his mind, he kept it that way. “Do you understand?”

Keith looked up, confusion and blood all over his face. “My girl? Who the fuck are you?” Keith bravely spoke up.

Ray jerked up him by his lapel shoved him against the brick building barely missing the gutter along the corner. “She isn’t shit to you now. You understand? Don’t fucking talk to her, don’t text her. You got that?”

Keith writhed in pain at the back of his head, then when he realized he couldn’t move he nodded.

Ray nodded, mocking the bleeding man he smiled as he spoke. “Stay away?” he asked.

Keith, frozen in shock, echoed Ray’s words in a soft voice.

“Stay away.”

~

You couldn’t place the smell. But it stuck to the inside of your nose and even made each breath you drew add to the rawness at the top of your mouth.

You remembered drinking. The taste of some tart-sweet cocktails still rolled around the back your tongue. Ray’s face glided back to your memory. The moments and snippets of a night out with him began to resurface.

And in the moments before you opened your eyes you remembered Ray’s face drawn into a smile, his eyes held yours and his hands greedily held on to you as you drank.

When your eyes opened you were met with the image of your bedroom. You tried to move but the muscles of your legs, ass felt heavy as hell so you rolled to your back.

You laid there in the wave of tingles and tiredness for a few minutes. You struggled to remember how you got home the path from the bar to your front door was at least twenty minutes. But right now it only seemed like you could remember the last shot and the sound of the squeaky frame of your bed.

The hot water from the shower melted away the night before. Happily, you felt great, though hungry so you were quick to finish. Stray drops splashed from the tips of your hair as you wrapped it up to the top of your head. The soles of your feet cooled under the wood of the floor as you walked to your kitchen. Thoughts elsewhere, mostly on Ray, you glanced at the pile of clothes on the couch in your living room but you didn’t get give it a second look. You walked through on your way to the kitchen, rounded the corner and come face to face with the naked broad chest of a man.

“Hey Sunshine,” Ray’s smooth voice jolted you back and away but one of his long arms pulled you back toward him.

“Ray!” you said, lightly your hands fall to his chest, then your eyes land on your hands and the swirls of hair in between your fingers. “And..you have no clothes on.” The bewilderment in your voice came across more than the fear that he was there.

“The bar…Keith never showed up…” you said but quickly Ray overwhelmed, crowed you as his hands tugged at the sash of the robe.

When he leaned down to you, the smell of washed skin hung as he pecked the corner of your mouth. “Fuck that piece of shit, baby girl.” he breathed, your body began to shiver with his hands pulling back your robe.

“Take me back,” he asked, his hands rough like his voice slid down over your naked ass. Ray hunched over you with his six foot five frame swathing your body with his presence.

You pushed back but he kept you there. Wrapped in his arms.

“Did we?” you asked, your breath became more shallow. You were mad that you wanted him but also too afraid to admit it. But you also wanted to know what had occurred the night before.

“I didn’t touch you…I could have..” he said. The heat of his body glided up to you, his hands dove passed your asshole to your cunt. “But I’m going to show you now.”

His fingers caressed your folds, urging you to comply. “Ah, there it is Sunshine.” A tinge of hilarity mixed with sultry want lingered in his voice. Slowly, he walked you back to the living room. He had you now. The past pushed back against the weight of the present, you suddenly remembered everything about his body and how he only made you feel.

“I’m going to fuck you on that couch.” One his hands came back, held the base of your neck, the other came from around your ass and buried into your pussy. You jerked, even twisted a little as he immediately remembered your body too.

“You want me to fill you up?” groaned Ray, then kissed your moist lips. He pulled back stared at you as he pushed and rubbed your clit whipping up your wetness. “Answer me.” He demanded.

Your blood pounded in your ears and warped the sound of his voice entangling it with the tone of his past. He was bad, all wrong you knew that. Somewhere deep inside your soul, there was a part of him that would put you through that all over again.

It was in his nature.

Your hands found the sides of his beard, you caress him drawing him into your kiss again.

“Sunshine,” his voice sounded light, tender—different.

You considered long enough. “Ray…I’ll take you back. But you better not hurt me again.”

“You’ll have more to fear than just handcuffs…” you smiled when you spoke, but promised with your eyes. Ray laughed, the sound of it rang in your ears sent a shudder down your spine. The tough crooked man and his menacing energy rived up the longing within you. It stroked at the unabashed want he always brought out in you.

Ray pushed you back on the couch, spilling your robe open exposing the thickness of your body, your dark shiny smooth skin.

His eyes, steely and determined roamed all over you as he began to unbutton his pants. “I’m going to give you everything.”

Ray’s pants dropped, he pulled at his underwear and your eyes settled on the large cock that flopped out. The bright pink tip weeping with want for you. A smile crept on to his lips at your reaction. He bent down, hovered over you before settling against your spread legs. “You forgive me?” he asked, the prickles of his beard tickled your chin before his lips pushed over yours.

“Do you?” he asked against your lips.

“Yes..” you whispered as Ray pushed against your entrance. “I do, baby…” you said again.

You breathed before he plunged. You remembered right, he was just as big and wide as before. The smoothness of his strokes hit the spot, the hot bundle of nerves buried deep inside you pulled and stretched around him.

“My…” Ray moaned, and then said roughly, “Sunshine.” his hands gathered up around your breasts holding them as he kissed you again.

His soft, warm tongue glided over your bottom lip, he sucked it into his mouth and then pressed his lips in once more. The slap of skin matched the heady breaths beating from your lungs.

You groaned, the reaction to his love could not be kept silent. Ray remembered lovingly how much he use to make you scream.

He released your breasts as you wrapped your arms around his neck he grabbed up the back of your knees opening you more to him. Ray filled you as he promised. The length of his cock pushed to his balls inside of you. His long, strokes dragged within slapping against your wet folds.

“Oh my god Ray…” your head rolled back, you both fought the feeling and welcomed it.

He smudged a kiss across your lips before he spoke. “’Missed this big cock in your little pussy?” a smile, satisfied and growing dark creased within his beard as he looked down at you.

Your eyes fell on his face, you remember this feeling—being taken so strongly, so tenderly. “I missed us,” you said between thrust.

Ray’s hands left your knees and found your face pulling your lips back to his. Seconds passed with your lips locked to his as he slid a hand between your bodies.

“I love you…never stopped.” He said the tips of his long fingers glided over your hard clit. “I want to fill you up,” he murmured over your lips. “Sunshine. I want to give you a baby.”

His words, his fingers draw upon something you never considered. “You want me..?” he asked, as he pushed harder, fucked you deeper. You clenched around him, the wave of your cunt responded before you could answer.

“Fuck that baby into me…” you whispered, Ray’s eyes narrowed his hand-pulled from you as he slipped from your body. He flipped you over, bringing your neck to the arm of the couch. You felt the heat of his chest, the slick of sweat of his arm as it pressed against the back of your neck. And he was back inside before your next breath. Ray began to pound into you, your hand hooked over the rim of the couch to brace your body for his rounded thrusts.

You moaned, whimpered every time he pulled out then plunged back in. You fall into yourself the tightness of your thighs reflected the taut sensation in your belly. “You’re going to be feeling me for weeks..” his voice, deep guttural is the trigger. Your eyes flew open, you shuddered all over when you come apart.

Your labored breathing, the stunted murmurs are enough to drive him into a racing pace. He leaned back gripped your hips he has dug in with every pound. And it hurts, you dip your head into the arm of the couch to catch your breath. But Ray doesn’t stop until he too finds himself releasing hard into your tight pussy. His hands suddenly left your hips, both large hands slapped over your ribcage, jolting you into an arching stance as he dragged his hands, your body fully back onto his cock as he came.

Ray’s hands rise along the length of your body until he reached your shoulders. Grabbing you up he pulled you up against his chest as he slipped from your body. His warm cum seeped from your used, swollen lips. His mouth, the smell of his sweat fanned over you as he spoke. “You’re mine…” Ray kissed your ear, and then pecked the skin behind your ear as he swooped your hair away. “Do you hear me?”

You nod lazily you were still buzzing and aching from your orgasm. “You’re the one who left me,“ you whispered, but the hurt in your voice faded as you shifted from him.

Ray’s hands kept you there, jerking you back up and against him, he held you by the waist, the throat.

“I won’t make that mistake again, Sunshine.” Said Ray, lovingly against the hold on your neck he placed kisses up to your jaw, your temple. “I have a job coming up. You won’t be left behind…on my word.”

~

You had decided that Ray was a fucking liar.

And without fail he had separated you, once again, from the people you had grown close to. Keith had caught a deathly beat down to the point the man wouldn’t even look at you now. You were livid and with little room to express just how much you resented Ray. You didn’t have his number because, why would he leave you with a way of contacting him? You were furious.

The same shit—over and over again.

The news came out that the Los Angeles Fed was infiltrated. You absolutely suspected Ray.

It was your job he hit.

Once again, it reminded you of the confrontational nature Ray had, the impossible was always the point of the challenge for him.

So you ducked your head down, kept at your job and said little to anyone.

Hurt turned to resentment quick when you realized the very man that had returned to your life had also put your job at risk. But also with the worry, a pain like no other surfaced when you learned the gang had been killed. And despite the anger. You did love him. So you called the people you use to know. Like the passionate woman you were you actually went looking for Ray.

But your efforts turned nothing up.

If he were dead, wouldn’t the police department glorify it? More than likely the embarrassment that one got away was why it wasn’t in the papers, splashed all over the internet, or the news. But after awhile the resentment came back and it was enough to stop looking. Fuck him, and fuck his heart.

And that’s were your mind was when you opened the front door. A round of loud knocking pulled you awake early one Saturday morning. You rolled out of bed, anger already stirring inside you, fixing your mouth to curse whoever it was at your door.

But when you opened it no one other than a small cardboard package. It had stamps all over it. Foreign, distant places some you had never heard of. So you picked up it, curiosity spreading across your sleepy mind you carried in and sat on the couch.

You flashed back to the moments Ray left you notes everywhere. The memory of a time he was willing to give in a bit, bare his neck to you for love. Ripping at the brown paper tape the lip opened easily to a few slips of crinkled stationery, an envelope, a phone and what looked like a postcard.

You pulled out the card, over it in dusky orange, grey was the dark silhouette image of Big Ben in sunset, the tall tower stood proud in the evening sun. You flipped it over and it read: _Sunshine_.

Your eyes went back to the contents of the box as you set the card to the side. Next, the note, you were shaking as you tapped into something wild, forbidden. Your heart was beating fast you slipped the note into your trembling hands.

_The phone only has one number._

_I wish I could go back. Make it all better again. But what’s done is done we can only move forward. And we will._

You stared at the note. And then the anxiety smoothed out. Anything that you were thinking up until reading that note fell away from your mind.

Ray remembered.

All of the hate you had held for him was struck away by this beautiful criminal gesture. Your Ray, in his own way, had held to his promises. And the hope, the only bright thing you could feel had you gripping the phone. You rolled it around in your hands until the face of it stared back up at you. You turned it on, waited for it to boot up as you unknowingly held your breath.

Ray had always needed a little sunshine in his life…


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a continuation of the one-shot I wrote. So you and Ray meet up.

_ _

_ **10 Years Ago** _

Ray kissed your neck. His hands drew your palms to his chest as he leaned into your shoulder. You lay upon him, resting your body against his warmth never the wiser of his intentions. He licked the skin there, his hands gliding up the hump of your ass over the smooth skin of your spine until he cupped your face.

“I love you.” His voice was light but muddled in tone. A morning husk that often reminded you of the first time you met him years ago. A younger Ray, a teenage asshole who ditched first period to sleep, only to drag his ass in at the end of third with sleep still in his eyes.

“Ray…” his name always tasted sweet in your mouth. You whispered his name again and it turned into a moan as he kissed you.

You slid down his long abdomen, rubbing the heat of your vee along his taut muscles. You are slick and willing but Ray squeezed your thighs forcing you to stop.

Smooth, his voice silkily rolled over his tongue as he spoke. “Sunshine.”

Though you noted the waxy, perturb tone in his baritone voice. It annoyed you a bit but you felt victorious when his head fell back to the pillow. Your hips rocked front to back over his length, his brown eyes focused on the stippled white ceiling in a haze of lust.

For a moment he laid like that, swept up in you and the heat of your thighs but as you began to grip his shaft Ray’s head rolled back to you while his hands fell to your shoulders stilling your motions.

“I have to go soon. There’s no time for this.” He said.

You kissed his clavicle and then you lightly kissed the warm skin of his pectoral. Ray’s body tensed. You began to lick over his stiff nipple with a wide stroke. “There’s always time for love,” you said softly. “You don’t have to go…” you said between licks.

You felt his hips grind up into you, the length of him brushes against your wet folds. The tip of his cock throbbed, the dull wanting aches shot up his shaft. If your body was the heavenly release, then the lead up was purgatory. He was standing at the pearly gates awaiting entry but there was no time to confess his sins.

It was too late. There was never enough time.

You pulled away from him. The setting gold sun blasted through the window and caught the ebony and crimson of your curls. Horny, ready to fuck as he was he couldn’t help but be reminded him of the little sun catchers on his grandmother’s front porch when he looked up at you. Soft fingers wiped over his cheek as you laid down light feathery kisses along the way.

“Hey, I gotta go.” Ray rasped and planted a kiss on your pouty lips.

Ray rolled you over with a tight grin thinning his lips. Naked, Ray stepped out of bed and began to dress quickly. You curled around a pillow, drawing your legs up close and wrapping your arms into it and wished that it was Ray.

“You don’t have to do this.” You whispered.

Ray glanced back at the bed. You were watching him with those big brown eyes. The sun was soaking into your brown skin and at the same time casting a heavenly halo around your coiled form. He paused, a few seconds considered your words. But it was dumb. Why stop now? You couldn’t understand.

“We don’t have enough. So if I don’t do this you can kiss that car good-bye, those clothes in your closet-“

“Alright.” You cut him off and sat up, your naked breast became exposed but Ray did his best to ignore the flashing extra skin.

“It’ll work out.” He grunted as he hiked his jeans up. His tone is reassuring but leaves little room for that guarantee in you. Crime wasn’t reliable. Sometimes you can get away with it. But most times it can come biting you in the ass again.

When Ray does not come home that night you worry. But it was normal. You always worried too much when he was out on a job. It was the way this worked. 9-to-5’s were not his type. So it was natural for things like this to happen, as thin and uncertain as they were, took time to complete.

But two days later the worry turned to horror.

You tried to make sense of what was happening. Your calls went unanswered, as did your pleas to the accomplices that tossed their burner phones when you came calling.

It wasn’t until the next week when the police crashed into your home. Knock-knock, and then a giant clash of plastic and kevlar and too many masked officers to count that came barreling into your apartment.

They took you in the night. Half-dressed, hair still wrapped and going on little to no sleep they held you in a cold bright cell.

You knew that this was part of the game. If he had ever been caught you swore to God you would never tell. And you didn’t. Even when they threatened to throw the book at you.

And you kept your promise afterward too. After his sentencing you drove one hundred miles to the prison he was housed. You walked in, beaming a comforting smile and holding your head high when you saw him. Being his brave girl. It was the first time to see him in three weeks.

But Ray stared at you from across the sticky metal table in the visitor section. His buzzed hair grown out a bit more, darkness under his eyes to match the plumb colored bruise on his cheek. Little emotion was expressed, he blinked, nodded to your words. Until you finally decided that you too would just sit in silence.

“I don’t want you to come back here.”

Your hands shook but your voice was steady as you softly spoke back. “Why? You can’t think I’m just going to leave you in here…”

“Don’t come back. You’re a loose end.” He clipped back.

“What?”

  
“You fucking heard me.” Ray’s voice was sharp, commanding.

“So we’re off?”

His voice was still ringing in your ears when he spoke again. “It was never on.” He said flatly.

“I lost my job-“

“Get out.” Ray stood up from the table, hands cuffed in front of his hips and stared down at you from his six-foot five-inch frame. “Don’t come back.”

And after that, you didn’t.

* * *

_ **Now** _

St. Tropez. French Riviera in October. Tourists have all but vanished in the coastal town. You followed Ray’s instructions along the way leading to the sophisticated seaside village. Now you sat in a little bistro near the weekly market. You felt off about it. The Place de Lices buzzed with the hum of people and the smell of sweets, and breads offered there. Your eyes moved the crowds, sometimes lingering for too long on very tall men in hats. You hoped it was him.

You had wished for a week that when you stared at the back of a man more than six feet it was Ray.

And like a kick to the gut you realized that maybe you were wrong about Ray.

_Again_.

Maybe he had left you once again to figure out what came next.

So you ate a small dinner, drank too much wine and left the bistro heavier than you arrived. You swayed when you walked. Your hair hung in your face, strands of curls stuck to your cheeks, a bit of sweat beaded on your top lip as you struggled to see the path in front of you.

You decided to take the long way back to your little hotel. Might as well take in the sights for what they were. You decided with a hiccup. A dizzy train of thought sped through your mind that perhaps this shit with Ray was off.

Because it was never on, remember? You laughed at yourself as you walked. A tarry, rigid giggle bubbling up from the pit of whirling doubt and moderately priced wine. He had told you that once.

So why were you here?

Your head tilted back, panned your eyes up that darkening French sky as your body became wrapped in the pale yellow glow of lamps along the way. You took the lonely feeling growing in your heart. You could smell the water. The breeze on your skin felt like a comforting kiss from a man you couldn’t wrap your mind around.

And the wine, the damn alcohol was sitting on your stomach. The slosh of it was ignored but you loved the numbing effect inside and out.

You remembered the jail. The day Ray all but said he didn’t want you. There wasn’t much left of that memory. Only the smell of wet dog the jail had cultivated and the icy glare of his eyes when he told you to go.

Now, the only memory that came first when you thought of Ray was him laying on top of you. The two of you wrapped together in an embrace decades in the making that the only sound you could make when you thought of it was a sigh.

The stoic gestures of Ray had always been there, even from the beginning. But this Ray, your Ray, was different now. Somehow more quiet, and more adept at holding in plans meant for the far future that you questioned his actions in the present.

Like now. You hiccup again and then paused along a stone fence. Another wave of the alcohol-induced dizzies you stood there with your face to the sky.

It would have been better to be more on guard.

But you weren’t.

And you were snatched.

* * *

Ringing in your ears, a bang from your temple pulled you from a dreamless sleep.

The lack of clothing concerns you but not near enough to truly shock you. It had to be Ray. 

You shift around on the soft sheets until you lay flat against the bed. Your head rolled to the left, the right, it looks different than your hotel room. A decent room with sparse decorations, a pile of clothes on one of the chairs in the corner and a lingering smell of men’s cologne.

You think back to the bistro. You were drunk but not wasted.

A shadow. It had been a large shadow from near you along the fence and a prick to your neck had been the last thing you remembered.

The only door creaked, lazily swinging in the southern France breeze drew your eyes back to the right. Along the floor dark leafy shadows swayed over the stone flooring. They seemingly merged into a dark outline against the bright morning sun. It got bigger, swelling in size until the shadow overwhelmed the light.

Around the corner, you could hear heavy footsteps. Ray stepped in with only a pair of cargo shorts and sandals. Water dripped from his nose as his head swept in your direction.

“Good morning,” he said gravelly as he smiled.

“You drugged me.” You croaked and then hold your breath as he began to peel off his soaked shorts.

“Had to—you would fight back.” He chuckled and dropped his box briefs.

Your eyes fell to his cock, limp but quickly gaining girth but you looked back up to him. “Wouldn’t have to fight at all Ray if you would have shown up.”

Ray began to walk toward the bed. Slivers of sun caught the green in his brown eyes as they roamed from the sheet to your bare chest.

“I’m a wanted man.” He pressed his knee into the bed followed by the other. “I had to make sure you weren’t followed.”

You began to gather the sheet up but Ray grabbed it back and pulled hard on it as you scooted back further against the headrest. “You can’t be mad at that.“

Ray tugged again the white sheets slipped from your fingers. And when his lips touched yours any thoughts of the budding animosity was pushed away.

Maybe it wasn’t important. Perhaps now being in his arms was the apology you had been seeking for the last decade that led up to last night.

And when Ray’s tongue licked between your thighs, his thick fingers gripped your silky skin it was a promise. His palms, not as smooth as you remembered, roughly scrapped along your thighs you wondered how long this would last.

Ray lifted his head and stared into your eyes. He rose above you a slight grin plastered on his lips under the slick of you and spit he mumbled: "I’ve missed you.” and then kissed your lips, ducked his tongue inside your mouth.

He was inside you before another kiss. No warning to the power you knew he held there. He pushed harder driving his length deeper. Desperately you clung to him letting him take what was his.

Your Ray missed you.

He was close. His hardening cock, the fevered thrusts. Ray was lost in you.

You missed him too. You watched his hooded eyes stare into your mouth, his eyes fluttered with his final pump filling you with warmth.

You didn’t cum. But you got something else.

You had your Ray.

Ray falls to the sand.

You smiled hard down at him, you don’t suppress the laugh coming up. In a burst of giggles, you sit back down on the lounger holding your chest and stomach. 

He had tried to dig a hole. Not just any hole—THE hole. Little did he know that halfway through its construction he would abandon it only to fall into it hours later.

Ray looked up at you from the cool sand.

“I knew that was there.” He grinned and then got to his bare feet.

Amused, your eyes dance from the hole back to his sweaty face. “You’re an idiot.” You said still clutching your chest from the ache.

“I’m your idiot.” said Ray and sat on the lounger with you and pulled you into his arms.

Your head rested on his broad warm chest. The strong flutter of his heartbeat under your ear and an arm stretched across his waist made for a perfect feeling. 

You missed him too.

“Only because no one else would put up with your shit.” You chuckled back, settling into his heat.

“No.,” he said, his voice hummed in your ear over the sound of his heart.

“No, what?” you asked, tilted your head up toward him and the fading grin on his lips.

“No, I wouldn’t want anyone else,” said Ray wrapping both of his arms around you encasing you in his protective embrace. “There’s only you.”

He peered down at you over his cheek barely moving his head before he looked back at the white-tipped waves.

“Donnie wants to meet up.” He said softly, almost under his breath as an afterthought.

But you caught it, and the meaning, even if he did not express it. Donnie was the architect of the last job.

You sit up on your palm and look down at Ray. Your dark eyes burning holes into his passive expression only makes you slap at his chest.

“Don’t you have enough?” you asked. "God, I can’t believe this shit.” You sat up fully now and pulled out of his arms. “You have millions, _millions_! So god damn greedy, Ray. Why?”

“It’s full proof.” He said, still laying on the lounger his fingers crisscrossed over his chest. He didn’t move, barely even opened his lips as he spoke. “I’m not greedy. It’s for us. Imagi-“

“No!” you shouted, paced over the sand as it gritted between your toes. “This is –“ You turned back to him, still unmoving, and shook your finger at him. “This is for you. Always. You do this shit. The world doesn’t owe you, Ray. You can’t just steal what you want as if it doesn’t matter. Do you want them to catch up with you? To us? I can imagine that!”

You dragged yourself, dejectedly, away from Ray on the beach. You felt the sadness, the disrespect rising up from the pit of your stomach. And even when you returned to the room it hadn’t lessened. Instead, your eyes swept around to the messy bed, a pile of Ray’s clothes on the floor, and an empty bottle of wine taking in the mess he had left behind.

He was always leaving shit behind.

Even you.

“You’re right.”

You turned around to find Ray standing there. His expression still passive he stared at you, he ducked his hands into his cargo pockets and waited.

It concerned you he was so easily swayed. That was not the Ray you were used to dealing with. Not the man of the past who would have gleefully left you behind to follow his own path.

“I’m right about what?” you asked, crossed your arms over your chest and studied him.

“About that job. About me…I don’t want to be that anymore.” He said simply and took a long step near you. “You’re enough.”

* * *

You were impossible to look away from. Dark coils sweeping over your damp forehead, your brown eyes watching lovingly over the scene, a happy smile pulling your full lips over white teeth.

It was a dream. Ray decided this moment right here superseded all other moments. Not even the wedding, the birth of the second or even the third kid could compare to this moment.

You lifted your skirt, squatted down near the creation one of his sons had constructed. He was smart like you, reckless like his father and Ray stared as your hand moved the little door open and closed on the castle of wood and stone he had created.

The Alps stood, gray rock and snow-capped peaks, in majestic contrast against the vivid green pastors, and the wood homes billowing smoke from their well-worn chimneys.

The oldest and tallest of the bunch ran over pushed on the shoulders of the youngest son playfully. Fighting brothers, but best friends, he teased his younger brother before clapping him on the back.

You stood watching them. Hands on your wide hips you gazed at them tease each other, Ray was sure you were remembering their birth and imagining the kind of men they would grow to be. You loved to talk about it. Sometimes, in the dusk of sleep, you muttered to the air of how much they looked like him.

A girl, the youngest, about five years old bounded down the hill from the house and wrapped her arms around your waist.

Chestnut curls caught the wind, blew around her rounded chubby face as she turned to Ray.

She pushed off from you and ran toward Ray and into his arms where he willfully pulled her on to his lap. Her small hand wrapped around his four fingers, squinting she stared up at Ray stroked his smooth face before pinching his chin.

Ray tickled her, under the arms around the ribs sending her screaming in a fight of giggles back to her mother. Ray’s eyes followed and then landed back on you.

The little nick-name he used seemed fitting more than ever. The white alpine rays of the sun steadily cascaded under the horizon turned orange and yellow. Your skin absorbed the light, shined more beautiful than he had ever seen it. His sunshine.

You were enough.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story! :D


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